Adobe Systems' Flash Media Server software is now available as a pay-as-you-go option on the Amazon Web Services cloud-computing technology, the companies announced Wednesday.

Flash Media Server 4 lets customers send streaming video across the Net. By using it hosted on AWS' Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service, customers don't have to worry so much about installation and configuration details.

The service costs a flat rate of $5 to set up and $5 per month to use, with variable costs according to the video-streaming capacity needed and data transferred. For example, an extra-large server instance that can manage up to 1,000 Real-Time Media Flow Protocol video connections costs $1.30 per hour, along with 10 cents per gigabyte of data coming in from a device such as a user's Webcam and 15 cents per gigabyte of data being streamed outward.

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Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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